Telecommunications providers build very expensive networks in order to provide voice, data, video and other services to homes and businesses. Cable television companies, for instance, build Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) networks to provide voice, data, and video services to customers using Radio Frequency (RF) technology and Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) sharing schemes. Services are broadcast over these networks from a cable television headend and then demultiplexed, demodulated, and decoded as necessary by electronics located on the side of the house or business or within the building. These networks can cost several thousands of dollars per subscriber to build.
Telephone companies use Gigabit Passive Optical Networks (GPON) to deliver voice, data, and video services to homes and businesses. Services are typically broadcast over a single optical fiber to an optical splitter. The splitter divides the power among several individual fibers which transmit these services to electronic units located on the side of or within a building. These electronic units must demultiplex, demodulate, and decode the transmitted signals as necessary to deliver the appropriate services to the individual subscribers. This type of network can also cost several hundred to several thousands of dollars per subscriber to build and operate.
As technology, market conditions, and federal and state regulation has evolved, an economic inefficiency has been created resulting in network providers passing multiple sites, and serving only one, with the cost passed on primarily to the mass market of residential and small business users. In addition, discriminatory investment spending to upgrade networks, along with a lack of corporate investment in a recognized optimal fiber network solution, is being observed as the United States falls behind other countries in the percent of sites served with an end to end fiber solution.
In order to save capital costs and operating fees, and to achieve the “broadband for all” goal for the common good, the services from different network providers can be sent over the same passive optical network. However, an effective and reliable sharing scheme needs to be developed in order for carriers to commit to placing their services over a shared network. Another problem with a typical shared network arrangement is that the manual switching devices used to connect or disconnect a customer service feed can be easily tampered with and do not provide remote monitoring of unauthorized usage for the individual service providers. A need therefore exists for an improved system and method for allowing multiple service providers to distribute services using the same network infrastructure.